I booked two days off of work in order to get myself organized and ready for Christmas. Generally, I work every week day during the holidays, which means I have only the late evenings and weekends to do my shopping. As anyone who has been in a mall in the past month can attest, this is a new, modern level of hell.Yesterday was TBIT's day off too, so we went shopping for family and friends. 7 hours later, we had most things bought but still not everything. Buying for friends and family is easy - buying for the spouses of friends and family is always the tough part. Today, I am taking a break from the malls in order to get the apartment ready. Everything is being wiped down or washed before the Christmas decorations go up. This includes cleaning behind the fridge and stove (ick). Of course, I have just noticed we are out of any type of cleanser. So I have to go buy that. And I also need those "command adhesive strips" to actually hang stuff. Oh, and I wanted to check to see if the little shelving unit we saw at Storage Solution would fit into the corner of the kitchen. It is also about time I re-dyed my hair so I need to buy dye. Right, I am also out of cotton balls and the cats need more kitty litter. Guess I will heading out again. Boy, I am soo glad I don't actually have to work... >:P·1:48 PM : 1 comment

Both my sister and I had imaginary friends. My sister's friend was a girl slightly older than she was at the time named Lola. My imaginary friend was actually an imaginary school teacher named Mrs. Beasley. Lola showed up when my sister was around 5 and Mrs. Beasley was there when I was maybe 2 1/2. I am not quite sure why my sister had Lola. Maybe she wanted to have an older sister rather than 2 elder brothers and a really annoying tag-along younger sister.I believe I "discovered" Mrs. Beasley as a result of being the youngest child in the family and not yet in school. I remember sitting around the dinner table and having my father ask my older siblings what they did in class that day. My eldest brother would sometimes have to confess that he got strapped by his Gr. 3 teacher Mrs. Walker. I would wait my turn to be asked about my day and I would tell everybody all about what we did in Mrs. Beasley's class. I remember she gave me the strap a lot.Mrs. Beasley went away when I started my first day of Kindergarten at age 3 years and 9 months. I was so excited to be going to school. My mother walked me to the community centre where it was held, we walked in the door together and I took a look around. There were dozens of screaming and crying kids everywhere. My mother handed me off to a teacher who told me to just stand there for a moment while she went to round up some other kids, and then walked off. I remember turning to see my mother walking out the door. I looked at all the strange kids around me and then followed my mother right out the door. I trailed about 20-30 feet behind her the entire walk home. When she walked in the door at home, I walked in about 5 seconds behind her. I remember her look of surprise and exclamation of "You little bugger!"She then phoned the school to tell them where I was, then asked if I wanted to go back. I believe I was rather emphatic in my "NO!" The next few days when I was supposed to go back, I would hide in the smallest places I could find which also meant no one could get me out unless I helped. I never went back to Kindergarten.

Mrs. Beasley moved to Ottawa and opened her own bakery. She makes good gingerbread cookies.·1:04 PM : 1 comment

December 14, 2004

I just got home from work and I am sick with a migraine thanks to the total lack of consideration of a couple of co-workers. There are a few of things that will send me spiraling into a migraine and two of them happened at work tonight. In the tiny, enclosed space of the control room, one co-worker decided to paint her nails. Personal grooming is not something one is supposed to do at work. Leave doing your nails for the privacy of your own home or if it has to be in public, make it at a salon. Then, just when I was coping with "a bit of a headache" from the nail polish, another co-worker starts waving around a sample card of the new Paris Hilton perfume. And I mean waving it around. Double whammy! And you know what makes it worse? Co-worker #2, when asked to put the sample away, gave a roll of her eyes with a "phff - whatever" noise as though I were making a majorly inconvenient request. I am in agony and she gave me 'tude. At least co-worker #1 was apologetic. Excuse me. I have to go throw up now and then take codeine.·1:19 AM : 6 comments